Plastic and metal caps and lids can now be collected and recycled instead of ending up in landfill with the rollout of a new recycling programme.
Collections boxes for a variety of caps and lids are now available in selected New World, PAK’nSAVE and Four Square supermarkets in Auckland, Tauranga and Christchurch; and more regions and collection points will be available for Kiwis to drop off their caps and lids in the coming weeks.
New World Birkenhead in Auckland will officially be the first collection point for this scheme.
The Caps and Lids Recycling Scheme is an industry-funded programme operated by the Packaging Forum designed to ensure as many metal and plastic caps and lids as possible are diverted from landfill, and instead placed back in the recycling and circular economy.
Rob Langford, CEO Packaging Forum says as of 1 February 2024, all caps and lids irrespective of size, shape or material have been excluded from kerbside collections. This followed an announcement by the Ministry for the Environment in September 2023 that stated collections would be standardised across the country resulting in some materials being excluded, namely caps and lids, among other materials; and, unfortunately, this has resulted in a lot of good, recyclable material being sent to landfill instead of being recovered, and then recycled.
Rob says it is estimated that approximately 16,000 tonnes of caps and lids are in circulation annually – that’s approximately 900 trucks loaded with waste. Around 60% of household grocery items have a cap or lid to contain the product safely and securely.
“Almost 10 percent of all packaging material is made up of caps and lids. Given this sheer volume of plastic and metal caps and lids in the market, we needed to quickly come up with a sustainable solution to this problem that has arisen due to changes to waste collections,” says Rob.
“As a result, The Packaging Forum along with industry partners and some of our members, has designed a programme whereby the plastic and metal caps and lids which would have otherwise ended up in landfills across New Zealand, will instead be collected and recycled into new products and placed back into the recycling and circular economy.
“The Scheme is 100% funded by members and provides a sustainable, end of life solution for these caps and lids.”
Rob says the metal caps will be sent to metal recyclers in New Zealand for processing and recycling – the likes of Hayes Metals, Simms Metals and the Association of Metal Recyclers. The plastic lids will go to PACT Recycling in Auckland to be collected, locally granulated, washed, and dried then sent to Australia to be sorted and recycled to make a range of new products including wheelie bins, flowers pots, slipsheet and cable covers.
“Ideally, we would recycle these plastic lids in New Zealand, but we currently don’t have the infrastructure to separate out the plastic types and fully recycle the plastic caps locally, so our best option is to send it to our partner across the Tasman – we do, however, have full traceability of the material via our Australian recycling partner.
“Ultimately, we hope that all the material we collect, both metal and plastic, can be fully recycled locally for the manufacture of new products – for that we need the programme to grow. We’re industry funded so the more members we have, the more we can grow our programme through the country,” says Rob.
“We are very pleased to have our collection boxes in several New World, PAK’nSAVE and Four Square supermarkets in Auckland, Christchurch and Tauranga. We already have a lot of interest from community resource recovery centres and other environment hubs which is brilliant, and these will come online in the coming weeks. We are taking a managed rollout approach to ensure we have a robust logistics network in place; but we are keen to hear from any organisation that is keen to become a partner of the Scheme or to have collection boxes on site,” says Rob.
Debra Goulding, Sustainable Packaging Manager for Foodstuffs, the co-operative behind the nation’s New World, PAK’nSAVE and Four Square stores said: “We’re proud to be a foundation partner for this meaningful new recycling initiative. As a 100% New Zealand-owned and operated co-operative of local grocers, caring for our environment is a responsibility close to our hearts. There are two initiatives we’re focused on, the first is making it as easy as possible for our customers to recycle packaging. The second is ensuring our packaging is recycle ready, reusable, or home compostable, so these valuable packaging materials remain in circulation.
Zero Waste Network and Environment Hubs Aotearoa are participating in this programme to minimise waste to landfill. The two national networks are keen to be involved in the evolution of the programme to the materials being processed onshore and be part of the local circular economy. Locations from these networks and others will be ready to collect caps in the coming weeks.
“We were surprised that all untethered lids of any size and shape including margarine tub lids and food can lids etc were excluded from kerbside collections rather than just the tops which are too small to be captured through the recycling system. It is disappointing for our members, and for people at home wanting to recycle as much as possible, that they are no longer collected at kerbside, as they are in many other countries, and we do hope to see them eventually returned to kerbside collections soon so that valuable plastic and metal is collected for recycling in the way which consumers want,” says Rob.
“However, in the meantime this Scheme is filling a great need and is another real-world example of how industry can voluntarily collaborate and succeed in its responsibility to deal with the end-of-life recovery for packaging and support a move towards an onshore circular economy,” says Rob.
Kiwis located in a region that currently does not have collection boxes are encouraged to collect their caps and lids in anticipation of a collection box arriving in their region.
Targeting caps and lids was the next logistical step for The Packaging Forum which has real experience in delivering successful solutions to post consumer packaging materials in New Zealand, having operated several product stewardship schemes over many years, such as the Soft Plastic Recycling Scheme, the Food and Beverage Carton Recycling Scheme, and the Glass Packaging Forum.
The Scheme can only accept plastic and metal caps and lids: beverage caps (beer and wine bottle caps), condiments (for example, jams and spreads), janitorial lids (cleaning products), cosmetic lids, margarine and ice cream tub lids, pharmaceutical and nutraceutical lids, hinged caps (often found on sauce bottles).
For more information on the Scheme and for drop off locations, visit https://capslids.recycling.kiwi.nz
Current locations include:
Auckland: New World Birkenhead, New World Albany, New World Hobsonville, New World Waiuku, New World Stonefield; PAK’nSAVE Mt Albert, PAK’nSAVE Royal Oak; Four Square Mangawhai Heads
Tauranga: PAK’nSAVE Tauriko, New World Mt Maunganui, New World Gate Pa, New World Brookfield
Christchurch: New World Prestons, New World Bishopdale, New World Wigram, New World Ilam
*Additional locations will be available on the website www.capslids.recycling.kiwi.nz
